East Coast Trip: Day 7 and Day 8

I took a 9 AM train out of Manhattan back to Greenwich, CT so I could pickup my car. I then drove across the George Washington Bridge into New Jersey and then into Pennsylvania. My friend from high school, Danny, was recently relocated from a Philadelphia suburb to upstate New York. His apartment lease in Philadelphia ended on June 4, so he came back to pack up his remaining personal items and furniture. In exchange for letting me stay at his apartment and showing me around Philadelphia, I helped him clean his apartment and load his furniture into a U-Haul truck. When I finally arrived in Philadelphia on Friday (Day 7) afternoon, we went together and picked up the U-Haul. We packed and loaded a majority of his furniture and personal belongings on Friday, taking a break halfway through to eat at a brewery downtown West Chester, PA.

On Saturday (Day 8), we took the train into Philadelphia. We then went through the Reading Terminal Market, a large indoor building containing numerous food counters and vendors. We then walked a coupled of blocks over to Independence Mall to get tickets for a tour of Independence Hall. Since we had a couple of hours to kill before our scheduled tour time, we walked to Penn's Landing and to Thadeus Kosciuszuko National Memorial before returning to see the Liberty Bell back at Independence Mall. It was pretty neat to see the Liberty Bell in person because it such an iconic symbol of the city and early America. We then had a tour of Independence Hall, which felt like a miniature history lesson (with props) on the American Revolution.

We then took the bus across town to a more modern iconic image of Philadelphia: the steps of the art museum. I was one of several people who ran up the steps of the museum and raised my hands in the air like Rocky. We then walked back towards the subway and got cheesesteaks sandwiches from a corner restaurant. There are a couple of well-known cheesesteak restaurants in Philadelphia but Danny explained to me that locals almost never go to the most famous places because the lines are always long. While some people consider it blasphemy, others think that all cheesesteaks are about the same. Regardless, I enjoyed the cheesesteak and it reminded me of one of my favorite Ann Arbor eateries, Mr. Spots.

We then took the subway down to Citizens Bank Park to watch the Phillies vs. Brewers.  My experience at Citizens Bank Park will come soon in a separate post. After the game, we took the subway to downtown Philadelphia and transfered to the commuter train. The commuter train was packed with high-schoolers. Apparently all of the high-schoolers came from tailgating at a Luke Bryan concert downtown. It was a very awkward situation because many of the kids were belligerent. When we finally got back to Danny's apartment, we finished loaded his car and the U-Haul. We then cleaned the apartment and went to bed after a long day.